Animals escape Georgia zoo following devastating flooding

Lions, tigers and even a hippopotamus escaped from a zoo in the Georgian capital Tbilisi Sunday, adding to chaos caused by severe flooding that killed at least 12 people.

Police and soldiers were hunting down the animals, recapturing some and shooting others dead, while rescuers airlifted scores of people trapped by the floods.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili warned Tbilisi residents to stay indoors while the zoo animals were still on the loose.

He described the damage to the city's infrastructure as "substantial" after the River Vere burst its banks following hours of torrential rain.

"Our latest estimate is that the death toll is 12," Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania said.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Nino Giorgobiani said 24 people were still missing by Sunday evening.

Dozens of families have been left without shelter and thousands more without water and electricity, the mayor's office said.

Several main roads have been wiped out and small houses and cars were swept away by the torrents. In a city cemetery coffins were washed out of the ground.

At the Tbilisi Zoo, spokeswoman Mzia Sharashidze said three bodies were found on the premises of the zoo, two of them zoo employees.

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"The search for animals continues, but a large part of the zoo is simply non-existent. It was turned into a hellish whirlpool," Ms Sharashidze said.

Around 20 wolves, eight lions and a number of tigers, jackals and jaguars had been shot dead by special forces or were missing, she said.

9RAW: Zoo animals escape, roam city after flooding

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June 15, 2015: Residents in Tbilisi, Georgia, have been warned stay indoors after an array of zoo animals, including tigers, lions and wolves, went missing from the city zoo after their enclosures were destroyed during heavy flooding.

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"Only three out of our 17 penguins were saved," she added.

And on Georgian television, a hippo was shown swimming in the flooded Heroes' Square in downtown Tbilisi as rescuers struggled to capture the animal.

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The Tbilisi zoo's director, Zurab Gurielidze, said later that the hippo had been caught and returned to its enclosure.

He also added to the sad toll of how many of the zoo's animals perished in the floods.

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"All our lions and tigers are dead. We also failed to save our monkeys. They all drowned, unable to escape their cages," he told local news channels.

The corpses of a lion and a pony lay on the road close to the zoo on Sunday afternoon.

The government set up a hotline for residents to inform the emergency services if they spotted any of the animals.

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As clean-up operations began, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili visited the affected areas and sent his condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the devastating floods.

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"The human losses that we have suffered are very hard to tolerate. I express my condolences to all the people who lost their relatives," Margvelashvili told local television.